A photograph contains only about 42 bytes of information, argues Toby Ord
summerstay1 · x · 2026-09-08
The origin of this thread: Toby Ord argues in 'Curating the World' that a photograph contains very little information — about 42 bytes — and that understanding why changes how we see photography. summerstay1 replies that you can view it via the compressed text prompt needed to reproduce a photo: a few hundred bytes, a few paragraphs, assuming the model knows the subjects. The thread explores photo information content, model memory, and whether prompts define artistic contribution.
Related event: Oxford scholar: a photo holds ~42 bytes of info, so is AI art art?(3 posts)→
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